Tangible Media Group

We are working to create a new type of human-computer interface,
called PICO, by combining some of the usability advantages of
mechanical systems with the abstract computational power of modern
computers. Long before modern electronic computers were developed,
people relied on mechanical devices to perform computation. While
mechanical systems can be applied to only a limited set of relatively
simple computational tasks, the ability to observe the details of
their operation makes many of them easy to understand and use. In
contrast, modern computers can handle tasks that are more abstract and
complex, but the processes through which computation occur are hidden
and difficult to understand.

We are merging software-based computation with dynamic physical
processes that are exposed to and modified by the user in order to
accomplish his or her task. By designing interfaces that employ the
dynamic behavior of objects in the physical world, such as motion in
response to physical forces, as an interface vocabulary we aim to
create interfaces that allow people and computers to collaborate in
novel ways. To explore this idea we are creating and testing an
interface for planning cellular telephone networks on an actuated
tabletop sensing surface. Objects on this surface are moved under
software control using electromagnets, but also by users standing
around the table. With this method, PICO users can physically
intervene in the computational optimization process of determining
cellphone tower placement. We plan to investigate whether the
communication bandwidth afforded by an interface that heavily engages
the sense of touch can change the approach that experts take to
solving some types of optimization problems.